Southeast men need two wins, help to make tourney

After such a promising start, the Southeast Missouri State men's basketball season has certainly turned into a major disappointment.

But the Redhawks still have a shot to salvage at least a little something out of their spiraling campaign.

It's just that they'll need some help to do it.

First, the Redhawks suffered another loss, their 12th in the last 13 games, although at least Saturday's 86-82 BracketBusters defeat at Eastern Michigan wasn't an Ohio Valley Conference defeat.

So now the Redhawks (12-17, 7-11 OVC) turn their attention to the final week of the regular season, which features home games against Samford on Thursday night and Jacksonville State on Saturday night.

The first part of Southeast's mission is clear. The Redhawks need to win both to have any chance of squeezing into the eight-team OVC tournament.

Even that might not be enough for Southeast, which is currently ninth in the 11-team conference.

By getting to 9-11 in league play, Southeast can still catch three squads: Tennessee Tech (9-10), Samford (9-9) and Tennessee State (9-9).

At least one of those teams needs to lose a game, but if it's the right one, then the Redhawks should be in fairly good shape. By the way, Southeast split its two meetings with both Tennessee Tech and Tennessee State, and won earlier at Samford.

Tennessee Tech has only one OVC game left, Thursday at home against Murray State. If the Eagles lose, then the Redhawks would own the tie-breaker based on a win over league-leading Austin Peay.

Samford, after playing at Southeast, finishes at Eastern Illinois on Saturday. A loss there would give the Redhawks the tie-breaker because they would have beaten the Bulldogs in both meetings.

Tennessee State finishes at Morehead State and Eastern Kentucky. The Tigers would own a tie-breaker over Southeast in a head-to-head scenario, unless there is a four-way deadlock for sixth through ninth, in which case the Redhawks would actually get the sixth seed based on the combined records in meetings between the tying squads.

So, have I confused you enough by now?

To simplify, the two biggest games that will affect Southeast's OVC tournament hopes are Murray State at Tennessee Tech on Thursday and Samford at Eastern Illinois on Saturday.

But, as I wrote earlier, nothing matters unless the Redhawks win their final two games.

It's hard to imagine that the Redhawks' tournament fate would hinge on having to scoreboard-watch when they started OVC play 6-0 to lead the league.

That, however, is what the season has come down to.

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How about the Southeast women's basketball team?

The Redhawks didn't even need to go to the wire to win their third straight OVC regular-season championship.

Southeast clinched at least a tie for the title Saturday by virtue of its 68-52 victory over visiting Eastern Kentucky and Samford's 74-64 loss at Murray State.

So the Redhawks lead Samford by two games with two remaining, but I doubt they'll have to settle for simply sharing the crown.

The Redhawks (21-6, 16-2) host Samford on Thursday and Jacksonville State on Saturday.

Not only will one win give Southeast the outright OVC championship, it will also set an OVC record for most conference victories. The Redhawks are currently tied for that mark, having reached 16 OVC wins for a third straight season.

The OVC only has used a 20-game conference schedule the past three years, so win totals were lower for most of the league's history. Still, attaining the all-time mark would be a nice accomplishment.

Even nicer is the three-peat for the Redhawks, who are absolutely on fire with 12 straight wins and victories in 17 of their last 18 games.

It's been another sensational season for the Southeast women, led by the exceptional coaching of John Ishee and his staff, and great all-around play by the young ladies, especially defensively.

And I'll bet there will be more high notes the rest of the way as the Redhawks chase their third consecutive OVC tournament title and NCAA berth.

Major kudos to everybody involved with the program.

By the way, the 12-game winning streak is the longest in the Division I history of Southeast women's hoops. The program's longest winning streak came in the 1990-91 season, when Southeast's final Division II squad posted 21 straight victories before losing in the national championship game.

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OVC football teams won't have to deal with one of the more dangerous playmakers in the conference next season.

The Anniston Star newspaper in Alabama reported recently that Jacksonville State coach Jack Crowe dismissed quarterback Cedric Johnson for continual violations of team rules.

The newspaper said Crowe did not disclose the specific details of the violations, but he stressed they were related to team and athletic department policy and did not violate state or university code.

Johnson, who came to JSU as a junior college transfer last year, passed for 1,434 yards and six touchdowns, and was the Gamecocks' second-leading rusher with 437 yards and 10 touchdowns.

The newspaper said JSU is preparing to play the 2008 season with two true freshmen quarterbacks.

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I didn't see Notre Dame's 59-36 destruction of Sikeston coming in Saturday's Class 4 District 1 boys basketball championship game.

I figured Notre Dame had a good chance to win, but not by that big a margin.

Anyway, good luck to the Bulldogs and also to Jackson's boys as both prepare for sectional games Wednesday night.

Marty Mishow is a sports writer for the Southeast Missourian.